[UPDATE: I have made a second call to the Gamescom public info line. I was explicitly informed by one of the managers, that Valve were the ones who asked that HL3 be placed on the list; but that apparently, “just a few minutes ago“, Valve requested that HL3 be removed from that list.

Just two days ago, the Triad Pack map “Kong King” was added to TF2 as part of a free game update. Little did we know that this relatively uneventful addition represented the prelude to a second TF2 ARG, leading up to what we can only assume, is another significant game update. Who knows – it might even be the long-awaited Mann vs Machine game component! Read on.

The second reason is that we’re introducing a new co-host along with it: Mimaz, whom you might recognize as one of the co-hosts of the defunct Steamcast podcast, and one of my colleagues here at LambdaGen (he is, of course, the creator of the upcoming Half-Life Dissertation).

He used to post regularly on the Steam forums (where he would scare everyone into submission with copious amounts of impressive Half-Life knowledge and trivia), and he is a very good friend of mine. Also, he’s Australian. So listen in, if you know what’s good for you.

Back in July, users of the Steam Mobile app quickly noticed a variety of strange software-related genre categories had popped up in the Steam Store. When searched for manually, these ten software categories would automatically redirect you to a currently inexistent Software landing page in the Store.

At the time, these findings fueled speculation that Valve were planning on adding actual software applications to the Steam Store. And as we all know, once the community starts speculating, it never stops. Unless Valve themselves intervene… which they have, in the form of an official announcement! Read on.